While Apple Bloom works on her potions with Zecora, Twilight Sparkle drops by. The perfect afternoon! The potion dream team, and Zecora even starts telling stories. But with her, a story is never just a story.

Derpy doesn't care for Hearth's Warming, and this delivery for Chrysalis isn't helping, at all. The last thing she wants at this time of year is to examine her own heart, but faced with the changeling queen, how can she not?

The Princesses' birthday celebration is here again, and Mayor Mare needs a scapegoat—er, trusted citizen—to handle Ponyville's gift. Deciding what to get for an ancient ruler who's seen everything will be a piece of cake.

While on a work trip to help family in Appleloosa, Big Macintosh strikes up some correspondences with friends back home. These are the letters that crossed Twilight Sparkle's desk. Sometimes words don't mean what they say.

Caught in a rainstorm again, Derpy trudges off toward home. But along the way, she finds somepony down on her luck as well, somepony who very much reminds Derpy of her own childhood. It was a good day.

Lengthened version of the 13th-place finisher in the /fic/ mini write-off "I Regret Nothing."

“Don’t worry about it,” Derpy replied, flicking a hoof toward her. And flicking the built-up raindrops right at her face. Stupid! “Sorry!” Derpy whipped her head around to find a dry cloth in her saddlebag and offer it to Twist, but she only succeeded in flipping her wet mane at the poor girl.

Congrats on yet another EqD recognition, you relentless literary bastard you. At this point, I swear you could write the most vapid wish-fulfilling OC fest and still get it on EqD. As for the story itself, a nice touch of awkwardness and reconciliation. No completely gratifying resolutions, but the sort of positive outcome you could hope for in a ho-hum and oftentimes harsh life. Not quite the character dynamic I was expecting to play out, which makes for an interesting surprise. Can't say I agree with your choice for Twist's mom (unless it's canon. I haven't watched the show for a while, so it could be for all I know :P)Have to say this wasn't as cheery as I'd been hoping based on the cover art, but seeing how you were the one to write it I really shouldn't have been that surprised. That said, let me improve the mood by offering that song that I wanted this story to reflect. All the best.

Sometimes I wonder if your sole purpose on FiMfiction is to make people feel bad about their excellently written stories.

In the words of a famous Disney movie involving deer, 'If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it at all.' This is going beyond criticsm, this is just hating for absolutely no reason. You weren't provoked, you didn't offer a bit of constructive criticsm, and lady but not least, if you hate it so much then why did you bother reading and commenting?

Equestrian weather's weird. Seems strange that Derpy didn't bring her umbrella because she forgot about the storm, but remembered to pack Dinky's raincoat. Not totally implausible, but it does stick out. I actually stopped reading for a moment to wonder how exactly that happened, and then to think about how convenient it is that they know for certain whether or not they'll even need one

6163135Not much different from when I watch the morning news before work, then completely forget what the forecast was. As for Dinky, Derpy might have packed her raincoat the night before or just had a lapse of memory in the time between doing that and leaving herself. I certainly have the type of poor short-term memory that would cause that.

6164382Believe me, I'm all too familiar with those kinds of memory problems. That's why I said it wasn't implausible, just that it breaks the flow of the story a short moment

If Derpy's memories are at all to be believed, she explicitly packed the raincoat that morning, not the night before. After re-reading that paragraph, though, I noticed the umbrella stays in the pocket. Not something Derpy or Dinky would have to remember, but one often forgets that in those situations. So yeah, I just suck at reading

6165820 Wait, what does roofs have anything to do with what I said? Using a parasol as umbrella is like walking around with a radio instead of a MP3 player. It works, but it's not very practical to carry around, is it?

I was kind of wary about reading this story, but you did a good job with its expansion; I remember not being tremendously enthused about the write-off version of this story, but this actually almost gave me the warm fuzzies.

This is the type of fic that reminds me why I love a character like Derpy so much. Telling a story about background ponies is just so much fun because you get to fill in so many gaps that we'll never see filled in in the show. And something like this helps keep me determined to keep telling my own stories about her because it reminds me of just how many wonderful stories you can tell with her. Thank you kindly for writing this, it was a pleasure to read, and always a pleasure to find another author who sees the beauty in the lives of the little guys in the show and little stories like this.

6166158 Because it's possible for things to shield you from both the sun and the rain, possibly? It'd be a pretty flimsy parasol that would disintegrate in the rain, Those two can certainly afford ones that would, and it's not like Derpy's going to know the difference anyway. She sees a fancy umbrella, she calls it a parasol.

This is a sweet little fic. Makes me wish that someone did this for me before I became who I am today. I have no smile to serve as an umbrella anymore. Still, this story made me smile. I'll give it a like, a fave, and you now have a new follower!

6170242My opinion on things like this is that MLP was't really mine to write a story about in the first place, so it'd be odd for me to tell other people they couldn't use it. Translate away! And please put a link in the comments if you post it somewhere!

Hello! Well, it seems that I am a bit late. Excuse me,I am a Chinese brony, too. (And a little brony!) After reading your story Let a Smile be Your Umbrella , I think it is beautiful and moving. So if you don't mind... I want to translate it into Chinese and share it. (Though somebody else has asked...)If you allow, everyone who reads the translation will see: Cover Art, Writer and the link to the story. Also, I will put a link in the comments.Just want to share a wonderful storyWaiting for your reply~